If asked what freedom is, most people would say freedom is doing what you want, when you want to do it. Consulting a dictionary on this subject, we find freedom expressed as self determination for an individual, and self governing for a community.

Among other words used to define freedom are liberty, immunity, privilege, along with exemptions from things like taxes, slavery, bondage, despotism, tyranny and the like. There is something shrouded between these words something that is very important for us to understand if we are concerned with keeping our rights and freedoms.

The founders shared this concern. They wrote it into the Declaration of Independence when they said, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

We were created by the Almighty God. He gave us our rights. Our rights come from God, not from government! Governments are instituted among men to secure our God-given rights.

Governments must protect the people, and be guided by the principles of justice, given to us in the pages of the Bible by the same one who gave us life.

Any government exceeding this becomes the tyrant the enemy of the people and must be altered or abolished. The founders understood this as absolute truth.

The reason for government is obvious to most. If individuals, in our sinful state, were to act out on our own desires, without any restraint of law, we would be much worse off than a culture war. It would be complete anarchy. And Americas founders understood this; rejecting democracy, as it would be too similar to mob rule; and preferring a republic a government based on laws and not run on the whims of men.

There are many things written and available on the subject of the discussions of our founders as they endeavored to establish this republic. I urge you to study our history. Hopefully, you can see that the founders understood that self-determination had to be held in check by respect for others and laws to that effect. And the same would also be true of the pursuit of happiness.

Even though most people would give self-determination as the first (and most prominent) definition of freedom or liberty, the founders were more concerned with the other aspects: Self-governing, no taxation without representation, and tyranny for example. These are the reasons they stated for entering into the Revolutionary War.

Lets engage in a practical example to effect their Safety and Happiness. For your community, you would say that you have a safe and happy community if there were no muggers or bandits in it; that you are safe from harm from muggers while you walk along your streets; and your home is safe from harm from bandits while you are out.

Sounds simple enough, except the muggers and bandits are also exercising their self-determination; their freedom to act out on their own desires; their desire to take what they want just because they want it. They act upon their own whims without respect for others. This brings us back into conflicting ideas of who should be free to act upon his whim.

When we remember that our rights come from God, then we should also remember that He gave us His moral laws to govern our actions because He knows that fallen man cannot find peace, safety, or happiness outside of His moral law. But in our fallen state we dont like to hear that. We want to think that what we want, what we think, what we feel, is the relevant measure of what is right. And that is what the mugger thinks, wants, and feels.

In this is nothing but anarchy, where might makes right. Meaning, that whoever has the most power to force his will upon others, becomes the dictator, tyrant, or gang lord. This is why our founders did not want to be governed by the whims of a king, nor the mob rule of a democracy. They established a constitutional republic and hoped that the people would live in the moral law of the God of the Bible.

A few of many examples of this belief include:

The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God. (John Adams letter to Thomas Jefferson, June 28, 1813).

I am persuaded that no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable in which the principles of Christianity have not a controlling influence. (Noah Webster letter to James Madison, October 16, 1829).

[T]he religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government. (Noah Websters 1832 History of the United States).

The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity. (John Quincy Adams, July 4, 1837 speech).

If we wont live by the moral principles that God teaches us, then we are subject to whims of sinful humans, whether of self or of tyrants. For only God can define what is right, what is moral. Any other definition is subjective, based upon the whims of fallible humans. And ultimately this leads to slavery the loss of freedom.

It is an irony and shows the fallibility of our human founders that while they were fighting for their own freedom from British tyranny, they allowed the slavery of other humans here.

Since slavery is the ultimate loss of freedom, lets consider slavery in opposition to freedom. The slave cannot go where he wants; cannot do what he wants. He cant decide for himself how to live, nor pursue his own dreams. The slave is always subject to the whims of his master. The work of his hands is not his own, it belongs to his master. In short, the slave works and the master eats the fruits of his labors.

So, the opposite, we should understand, is freedom. The work of my hands is mine; and I eat the fruits of my labors; I enjoy the product of my efforts; and no other has claim upon what is mine. This is the shrouded part of freedom that we dont usually consider, but it really is the most important part.

The Mayflower Compact established a communist government for their colony. The colony as a whole owned the land. And the fruit of their labors the crop harvest was also the property of the colony as a whole and was to be shared equally. So, no one had claim to the fruits of his own labor; the colony owned it. Everyone was a slave to the colony and no one was free.

This system failed! The colony nearly starved to death that first winter because those who were able to do more work did not see any reason to work harder than the man doing the least work. As both would share equally in the eating, why not put in the same effort in the working?

The colony leaders saw that the system of communism was the problem and ended it. The second year each man had his own plot of land, it was his to do with as he pleased. And the produce of his labor was his own to eat, trade, or give as he saw fit. This is where they gained the abundance that we now remember as the first Thanksgiving.

Freedom gave them the prosperity for which they had hoped as each man could see that the more he worked, the more he would have for himself. This simple system of encouragement pushed each to endeavor to excel, to do more, to accomplish more, to gain more. And the colony prospered because of freedom with each man owning the fruits of his own labors!

So, why do tyrants, kings, communist, and dictators want to enslave others? Simple. They want freedom for themselves while living off of the fruits of the labor of others. The only difference between these and the bandit is that as a king, they make their whims the law of the land while the bandit has no masquerade of law supporting his whims.

One missing component, before we can bring this to our present circumstances. Lets look at the plantation slave. Even though he had no money, he was paid for his labor. Granted, his condition of life was far from equitable. Still, he had to have food, clothing, and shelter to keep living and working.

The condition of living requires the basics for life to continue. Hence, some of the product of the slaves labor was given to him. The pay he received was far from what his labor was worth. Between free men, we consider a fair days pay for a fair days labor while the slave master wants to keep the bulk of that fair days pay for himself.

Now lets put this into our time. Instead of plantations, substitute corporations. Not slaves under chains and whips, but exploited, underpaid workers living in very difficult conditions.

During the Atlantic slave trade, the rich people were the ones supporting the slave trade. Subsistence farmers and most family farms did not have slaves they simply could not afford them. Most people did not have house slaves the rich folks wanted and could afford it. Most people could not, did not and did not want to enslave others.

Now the rich corporation owners and million-dollar estate owners are often the ones who want an open southern border and lax immigration laws. They are the ones hiring the illegals and importing lower-wage legal immigrants (e.g., H-1B and H-2B visas) to work in their factories, businesses and homes in conditions no one else would or at lower pay rates than anyone else can. So, they can gain the labors of others without paying a fair wage.

How many times have you heard of construction companies and lawn maintenance companies hiring illegals? And doing those jobs for less money than anyone else? Or how about companies like Disney laying off American computer programmers and engineers after forcing them to train their foreign replacements?

Not all of the illegals are coming here for welfare. Many are still coming for jobs. And since they cannot complain, nor ask for aid from the police for fear of extradition, they are paid far less than what is fair so some rich guy can live off of other peoples labors. How is this different than the slave trade that was ended more than a century ago?

Lets end the modern-day slave trade by putting up a border wall!

PAUL FROWNFELTER of Henry County is a member of the local Volunteers for Freedom Tea Party. His email address is paul4of6@aol.com.

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Today's illegal immigration issue is a modern-day version of the Atlantic slave trade - Paris Post Intelligencer